Ideal and deviant interlocutors in a formal interpretation system
Conversational partners’ “ideal” information states – their knowledge (about the world and each other), their beliefs (with different degrees of certainty), their desires and intentions (of different degrees of intensity) – can be specified at any point in the conversation. The various elements making up an information state are sometimes standard-like, but often they serve as basis for various possible deviations from the standard. Some verbs which express particular deviations are discussed, including the extreme case of lying while saying the truth. Our analyses are presented in a formal interpretation system, which allows us to demonstrate how different meanings emerge while only changing polarity parameters from case to case. We thus intend to build a bridge between pragmatics and hardcore formal semantics.